Nigeria: Suicide car bombing kills seven in Catholic church

Seven people have died after a suicide bomber drove a vehicle filled with explosives into a Catholic church holding Mass in northern Nigeria, while two Muslim were hacked to death in suspected reprisal attacks.

A soldier stands next to the remains of a burnt out car after the suicide attack in Kaduna, Nigeria (Picture: AFP/Getty)

More than a hundred people were injured when the bomber drove through a gate and past a security guard into St Rita’s Catholic Church in the Malali neighbourhood of Kaduna.

It is then thought that a group of young men armed with machetes and clubs killed two Muslim men who had entered the ruins of the church trying to reach those who had been wounded.

The incident is the latest in a string of deadly attacks targeting churches in Nigeria.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, a jihadist group based in mostly-Muslim northern Nigeria that wants sharia law imposed nationwide.

Reuben Abati, a spokesman for the country’s president Goodluck Jonathan, condemned the attack.

‘The persistence of messengers of evil will not prevail over the will of the government and the people to secure peace and safety,’ he said.